News

Statement Regarding Anti-Healthcare Attack Ad

RICHMOND, VA — In response to a new anti-health care radio attack ad, Senate Democratic Caucus Chairman Sen. A. Donald McEachin (D-Henrico) released the following statement:

“Marketplace Virginia helps provide private health insurance coverage which would keep billions of tax dollars in Virginia and provide health insurance for up to 400,000 Virginians. The proposal was introduced by a Republican senator, passed the Senate on a bipartisan vote, and is supported by Chambers of Commerce across Virginia. It will help keep rural hospitals open, create perhaps 30,000 jobs, and lower health care costs for all Virginians. No amount of lies from shady interest groups will change the fact that every day we do not act, $5 million of our tax dollars are sent to our economic competitors.”

Background:

Claim: “Medicaid expansion is ObamaCare, and it’s threatening the quality of health care for millions of Americans.”

Fact: Marketplace Virginia is not an expansion of Medicaid, enrolls no new Medicaid beneficiaries, and works entirely through private insurance plans. Medicaid expansion is not currently up for debate in the General Assembly. The number of people on Medicaid will not be affected by “Marketplace Virginia.”

Marketplace Virginia does nothing to affect the care of those who already have insurance, but it does enable hundreds of thousands of uninsured Virginians to access the kind of quality, affordable health care that they currently lack.

Claim: “In Virginia you could lose your health care, or your doctor.”

Fact: Marketplace Virginia would not do anything to affect those who already have insurance. It would simply enable uninsured Virginians to access coverage.

Claim:“Some legislators might even shut down our state government over [Marketplace Virginia]."

Fact: No one is calling for a government shutdown, and nothing is being held hostage. The Democrat-controlled Senate has passed a bipartisan budget in the usual way and at the customary time, and the budgetary process is proceeding normally.

Claim: “Virginia's House of Delegates is committed to fighting against these disastrous laws.”

Fact: Marketplace Virginia is anything but disastrous. The plan would create a private health care option for up to 400,000 Virginians who currently have no insurance at all. Seventy percent of these uninsured Virginians belong to a family where at least one person is working.

The plan would also create perhaps 30,000 jobs, help keep endangered hospitals open, spark billions of dollars’ worth of economic activity, and — in the first year alone — return $1.7 billion in federal tax dollars to the Virginians who paid them.

Additionally, the plan will automatically terminate if the federal government pays one cent less than what it has promised.